acedia

acedia /ə-SEE-dee-ə/. noun. Listlessness, torpor, deep malaise, a distaste for the obligations of life or religious practice, the sin of sloth. As Thomas Aquinas put it, a “sorrow of the world.” See also: weltschmerz. From Greek akēdeia (negligence, apathy)

“But for sloth,” said Sir Gawaine. “A tendency towards acedia is his only weakness.” (Thomas Berger)

“Mysteries intrigue her, arrogance depresses her, and she enjoys a drink rather oftener than a doctor might recommend. She is given to occasional bouts of acedia, a sin not encountered in the Ten Commandments; the purpose of life now and then evades her grasp.” (Amanda Cross)

“Hours of acedia, pencil on the desk
coffee in a cup, ash-tray flowing
the window closed, the universe unforthcoming,
Being ground to a halt.”
(John Berryman)

“…acedia is one of the seven or eight temptations with which the monks might have to struggle at one time or another. Usually mentioned between sadness and vainglory in a list that was to become that of the ‘seven deadly sins,’ it is characterized by a pronounced distaste for spiritual life and the eremitic ideal, a discouragement and profound boredom that lead to a state of lethargy or to the abandonment of monastic life. It was designated by the expression ‘noonday demon,’ which is supposed to come from verse 6 of Psalm 91.” (Barbara Cassini)

“There is far too much regularity and rhythmic movement in walking to cause boredom, which is fed by vacuous agitation (mind rotating aimlessly in a stationary body). That is what led monks to suggest walking as a remedy for acedia, that insidious illness that gnaws at the soul. So it is generally right to contrast walking, which presupposes a purpose, with melancholic wandering.” (Frédéric Gros)

“‘Acedia’ in Latin means sorrow, deliberately self-directed, turned away from God, a loss of spiritual determination that then feeds back on in to the process, soon enough producing what are currently known as guilt and depression, eventually pushing us to where we will do anything, in the way of venial sin and bad judgment, to avoid the discomfort.” (Thomas Pynchon)

“To the classical world, as Shakespeare accurately dramatizes it in Julius Caesar, suicide can be an honorable end. It offers a dignified exit from a life that would otherwise end in shame. To the Christian mind, suicide is associated with acedia, or despair, the crime against the Holy Spirit, and the one unforgivable sin.” (Mark Edmundson)